Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Stranger ❯ Expectations ( Chapter 5 )

The Stranger

By Jody

Kind of fic: Romance /Alternate Universe / Suspense / Angst

Pairing: Vegata/Bulma

Rating: R

Warnings: Suggestive language, angst.

Disclaimer: I not own Dragonball Z or any it's characters.

Background: This fic takes place in the late nineteen century in England, which is more technologically advanced. Vegeta is a very rich gentleman who moves into the countryside in which Bulma resides with her mother and father. Because of his wealth he is simultaneously welcomed into the elite social circle in the society with Bulma.

Summery of Chapter: Bulma upon her visit to Vegeta's mansion is awed by both its grandeur and serene beauty as well as an inhabitant of it. Her knowledge of Vegeta and his history is not surprising due to what she was to him but the knowledge itself that Bulma gains from her gives her another perspective on what kind of man he truly is.

Chapter 5

Expectations

" It's beautiful isn't it?" a stout woman said as she was approaching me. She had beady eyes, plump lips and high cheek bones that formed a dignified face, a face that on seeing it for the first time you instantly knew that it could never hold any true beauty yet it was not unattractive just plain. Her beady eyes held a kind of serenity in them. It made her seem like she had experienced too many things in her life, as there is not only quiet before the storm but afterwards. It was just that there was far more destruction for us to notice it, far too much cleaning up to do. It was obvious she must have worked hard for this state of being, for this peace.

" Yes, it's truly beautiful." I said looking at her for much more than a moment too long, studying her actually before going to back to the sight before me. She didn't notice.

" You know, many people stare at this place for hours at a time. The house and grounds are so beautiful all year round, the English weather ever changing never changes anything here in that respect." With that she was silent again, silent enough to gain my interest, driving me to turn towards her. She was thinking.

" Sometimes I wonder if it is too beautiful here just like the Garden of Eden. It gives you the feeling that paradise will be lost some day, that it is just a matter of time before it is and nothing can prevent fate from doing its handiwork here, not even the master himself." She sighed. "I just hope I will be sleeping in my grave before it happens. I don't think I could bare to see it go apart again, not again after having seen it go down that path already in my life."

She paused a long time again this time she sighed more heavily than before. Her hand started to quiver with some sort of emotion; I couldn't place any name on it not then but now I knew it was defiantly some sort of pain. She continued to look at me solemnly then as fast as lightning strikes her composure changed and suddenly she started to smile, her face started to glow " Well at least I won't have to worry about it not coming back to its former glory if that happens again. I've been training Susan long enough to take over my duties. She will be ready soon."

I don't know what disturbed me the most. The fact that she was ready to face death so readily as a method of relief or that she was already preparing it by organizing a substitute to take her place in this household, a household that was probably her life, all of her life. Maybe I was wrong but lets just say in appearance she didn't exactly seem like the social climber or the partying type at any point in her life or that if given the chance she wouldn't spend the time as such.

I then occurred to me Vegeta had just moved into this house a mere few months ago, hardly enough time for the place to deteriorate and come back to looking like this? She seemed to have spent more than just a couple of years, decades even, in order to have to train someone to treat it this way. It was kind of peculiar I never heard of this place before but then again it was close enough to be in the vicinity of the local area but far enough to be remote.

" How long have you been here," I asked quietly.

" About thirty some years."

` She didn't look that old,' I thought to myself. " So who owned the house before Vegeta?"

" Vegeta's father of course. He had owned this house when I first came to it. He had bought it from a man a few months before I had arrived and was more than ready to pick up the pieces where that man had left it immediately. I was here to help him pick them and I saw the place transform itself into a majestic place. He visited a lot then but after he got married and got Vegeta he decided that they preferred the city and since the child needed stability they would stay there most of the time and then spend vacations elsewhere. And I didn't think the Misses didn't like here either."

" So you took care of this forgotten place for them while they stayed away?"

" Yes, sort of. You see the master back then, Vegeta's father, wanted to take me as Vegeta's nanny even though I wanted dreadfully to stay here. Back then I had a family, people to go home to. Not a husband or little tots around the house, not anything like that, just an unconventional type of setting one got used to, one loved. They are gone now though, grown old like me and more so forgiving. They thought I committed some lewd sort of betrayal by leaving our little home but I had my life to live and they had theirs."

She stood there with a few stray tears falling down her cheek. I was about to give her a handkerchief to wipe her tears away but she quickly snatched one from out of her pocket and dried her eyes. I felt uncomfortable listening to her talk like this and by my expression she probably knew it. She apologized saying this normally didn't happen, that she normally was the pillar of control that she never broke down before a guest before but that I looked different somehow from the rest. Much more pleasant and sweeter she said. I almost snorted on seeing how she had judged me so precisely. I told her it was okay, that I didn't mind it was just a sad story. She shook her head understanding. She continued speaking now of the topic I had asked her. She was completely back to normal, dignified as usual, but this time she was not devoid of emotion.

" I wasn't my fault you know, the house had to deteriorate under those conditions. I tried the best to take care of it adequately but my distance from it as well as taking care of the most obstinate child, Vegeta, prevented it. The master stopped caring about the house after a while. His wife did not like it so much here as I said it before, no friends and all. He loved his wife so much all he saw was her angelic face, her awesome beauty and graceful body." She paused. " I remember coming back after Vegeta had grown up and he wanted to live in the house. It had looked horrid in comparison to the way it looked before I left. It took us years to fix up, years to get everything perfect."

" He brought it back?" I asked interrupting her.

" Yes, he did, but exactly to his own liking, much more beautiful. I guessed telling him stories of the place when he was young wasn't for the worst because he took the initiative to bring it back. I knew Vegeta would do one of two things to the place. He would either tear it down citing it was a waste of space and his time or work on it. Thank God he choose the later. Vegeta designed everything you see and will see here. He approved everything. Yes I had a part I would design the rooms and Vegeta would keep what he liked and got rid of the rest, everything must be up to his standard he said. Nothing is here by accident, by any sort of mistake. Vegeta's too thorough for that. Nothing is or will ever be second best here."

" Is that so." I said skeptically, Vegeta the extreme perfectionist wasn't exactly the man I had in my mind. " I believe I have to see that to believe that."

" And you will see it in time Mrs. Briefs but I am afraid we have wasted enough already talking. Vegeta wants the gravity room ready by the time he gets home, at the most by tomorrow and he will take no excuses."

" What about plain facts. The great impossibility that this could occur as the time he gave me limits me so significantly that I was unable to do so."

" He will accept no excuses not even that one," she said smiling as if it was completely ludicrous.

" It doesn't really matter whether he accepts the excuse or not, that is not exactly my problem though it is most certainly his," I said a little annoyed.

She chuckled. " I see you are exactly like the master. They were right. "

With that she was went off, beckoning me to follow her, not giving me the chance to ask her who gave her that information. I sighed I guessed I was soon going to be working on the gravity room. I didn't feel like doing that now.

" Where is my room?" I asked running to catch up with her. For an old woman she was very fast on her feet.

" Don't worry I'll show you there. The maids you were assigned I think would have already unpacked your things there. They are very efficient you know and will do anything you ask." She said as-a-matter-of-factly. " You just have to go on the intercom and ask them no matter the time, day or night, for what you want. They will have it done as fast as possible."

I could see why Vegeta would enjoy the place and took so much time and money to have it suitable for his living, these people waited on him hand and foot. He got everything he wanted whatever time it was and probably where ever he felt like getting it. No wonder he felt that in other sectors of his life he would get it that way. Everyone practically gave him what ever he wanted whether or not he deserved it.

I had fell behind again so I ran to catch her up again. I wanted to explain why I couldn't stay. She looked like she believed this was going to be a living in job until I was finished it but I was certainly not going to do.

" I'm afraid that I will leave in the nights." I said. She immediately turned towards me. " I thought Vegeta would have already told you so. I can't stay here you see. It is not exactly proper for me to do so and if anyone found out they would think the worst and spread it all over this damnable place and I would be shun from this society. I don't want that to happen. I like it here."

She looked at me as if she was annoyed. Vegeta should have told them or at least hinted at it so that I wouldn't have to tell her. He always liked to place people in bad situations; he must me enjoying himself now. She seemed hurt but I knew no matter what I could not stay here of all the places. Yes it was beautiful but Vegeta lived here. Had it been another man that lied here maybe just maybe I would have spent the night but this was Vegeta. Vegeta with that dark gleam in his eye, that ever present smirk on his face and that very masculine body. There was no doubt in my mind what that body of his could induce in a female and I didn't want the chance to find out. I have already been tempted in dreams of what he could do. Plus I had heard rumors of some of his escapades what he could so with a woman and I did not want that experience. If Vegeta wanted me that is.

" If that is what you are worried about you don't have to worry about anything. What happens in this house stays here. No body breathes a word about what happens here. None of the servants here do or will ever do so. We have too much loyalty for that. You see when you work here you feel like the best and if Vegeta or I allow you to work here you are most certainly one of the best. We pride ourselves here in loyalty and duty comes before all else. He expects this from us and so do we."

I didn't know whether I should have been scared or impressed. She had said it with such a solemn face that I knew she was not lying or even joking for that matter. She was telling the truth, making that last part of it the scariest. Loyalty and duty comes before all else. I didn't want to know what all else consisted of so I didn't ask any more questions. They had a job to do and I had mine and since they didn't question me about mine why should I question theirs. I guess it was just a little surprising Vegeta could get anyone to feel such loyalty towards him.

Maybe it was a good thing I could probably wear and do what ever I wanted here. I wouldn't have to do such ridiculous things as changing after and before I entered and left the gravity room like at home. I didn't trust some of the younger servants too much. Yes they had loyalty to some extent but where did this extent end. Maria knew what work I did, all the servants did yet she was surprised when she saw me in male's clothing. Curiosity always destroyed people and in this case it would be me. No man wanted a woman more intelligent and hardworking than himself. Not even the best of them did.

" Here is your room." She said before opening the door. She stepped aside waiting for me to enter. I did and was greeted with one of the most spectacular sights. I was beautiful like the rest of the house, she was right its beauty could never be by accident it was too prefect for that.

" I see you like it. It is one of my favourite rooms in this house, it is also one of the largest bedrooms. Just look at the curtains, aren't the beautiful and the view, isn't it breathtaking."

The windows were massive and the curtains over them looked miles long. They flowed like a river down to the ground and so did the transparent material that was around the bed, everything felt so delicate and soft under my hands. The pillowcases were embroidered and the bedspread was hand sewn. She looked at them with pride. She stood and watched me look around it. After a while she cleared her throat making me turn towards her. She maneuvered me into the adjoining room, my dressing room. It had no door to it only a huge door way. The same curtains were in here. There was a dressing table, a chest of draws and a wardrobe all made of the same kind of wood all of which had my clothes. On the dressing table were my perfumes from home and all the other things that I had bought. There was something else there though. There were a set of brushes with a comb and a mirror. They were all made of ivory with a design made in gold. I looked at them.

" They are yours. A gift from Vegeta."

I didn't know what you say. What could one say when they got a present from Vegeta himself, the bastard himself. Maybe he wasn't a complete bastard if he gave me these lovely present.

" Tell him thank you for me."

" Tell him yourself. You will see him later tonight when he comes to check on the progress of the gravity room."

I didn't question her. What could I say? How could on thank Vegeta? Instead I headed towards a door at the other end of the room. The door lead to a spacious bathroom. It had the usual, a bath, a shower and two sinks embedded in a large countertop with a huge mirror spreading the span of it. It was simple but lovely. I liked it mostly because the tub was further down in the room in a space of its own, nothing but tile around it.

" You like the room don't you."

" Yes and your gift."

" They are beautiful. Did you work hard for this room to look this way?"

She chuckled. " Like I said nothing is by accident here. If you had noticed I didn't even place paintings in here. It took one's attention away from the room itself to the paintings. I didn't want that. Vegeta's room is a masterpiece though. I could have all the paintings in the world and it still would not take away your attention from the room."

" Does it?" I asked my interest gained. I had wondered how Vegeta had lived but my thoughts never strayed further than his actual house, never something as intimate as his own personal resting place.

" Yes it is. Maybe you could….." She stopped herself. I knew what she was going to say but unless I went out of my way to see it myself or for a more poignant reason I could not see it. Yet this only made me want to see it more.

" I must go." She said after a while of silence. " I have work to do and so do you. You already know where the gravity room is. You can find your way without me. Right?

" Yes."

"The master will be down there to see you when he comes. Be ready. Thank him then," she said smiling at my blush before leaving.

I looked around a little before heading down there with my change of clothes in my hand and my tools in the other. I changed when I reached there and went straight to work. I was hard though as there were men outside there working away at the some part of the insulation layer. They were to be done yesterday and by the faces you could see they wanted to finish today.

The rest of the day was quite uneventful. I, working inside the gravity room needing peace and quiet, while the men outside obstructed it. Everything was just normal until a faithful knock came on the door.

Author's Note: Okay a chapter is not going to be out for a couple of weeks definitely. I am so sorry about that but I have by exams really soon. For those who read chapter four early and it was incoherent I fixed it up so it isn't so bad now. Okay please read and review and until next chapter have a good day.